


Lie by Omission

by chancellorxofxtrash



Series: VRAINS Soulmate AU [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Ai both has a soltis body and sometimes is a monster, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Multi, Pain Sharing, lots of kissing and cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 21:56:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21186605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chancellorxofxtrash/pseuds/chancellorxofxtrash
Summary: “You know that sooner or later, you gotta tell him the truth, right? You can’t keep secrets from your soulmate forever, Yusaku.”Or in which Yusaku's soulmate maybe isn't the smartest ever, and also his bond with Ai might or might not complicate things.





	Lie by Omission

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Pain Shared](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17257100) by [Immicolia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immicolia/pseuds/Immicolia). 

> See that work I cited as inspiration? Read that beforehand. This takes place after that. Shhhh.
> 
> Also this is canon divergent post S2, because I said so.

“You know that sooner or later, you gotta tell him the truth, right? You can’t keep secrets from your soulmate forever, Yusaku.”

Yusaku just reached out, pushing Ai back to the duel disk with two fingers.

“You be quiet.”

“But you know I am correct” Ai complained, only his eye opening up in the disk. “He knows Playmaker is his soulmate, and he knows you are his soulmate. You can't keep avoiding the fact that _you _are Playmaker. You can’t build a relationship on _ lies.” _

“I am not _ lying. _I am just simply not telling him the truth.”

“Which makes it a lie by omission, doesn’t it?”

“You get no room in telling me what is a lie, after all, you played dumb for the longest time after we met.”

~*~

Way back then, when he teamed up for Ai for the first time (or rather, he took Ai as a hostage for the first time), it was easy to brush over it. Whenever they took damage, both of them got hurt, after all.

He didn’t start to suspect something was off until their first master duel with Revolver, when Ai got temporarily banished, and Yusaku felt _ empty. _

It was like a part of him was ripped away - in a much different way than the Lost Incident did - after the Incident, he felt like the entire world stopped, or rather, _ Yusaku _stopped, and the entire world kept spinning, and he was unable to hold on.

When Ai was taken away, when Revolver’s card banished him, it felt like the air was knocked out of his lungs, and figuring out that Ai was still _ alright, _ that he could _ come back, _ it felt like he was drowning, and finally managed to kick himself to the surface, and taking one deep breath. It should not have been that comforting, when the chattery Ignis was back, but truth of the matter, that it _ was. _

It really wasn’t until the Tower of Hanoi was standing, that he realised that he felt Ai’s pain, and vice versa: when Ai yelled in pain when Yusaku’s arm was hit by the flying debris, and when Yusaku himself felt the pain of debris hitting Ai over and over again.

It was sharp, painful, and _ real. _

_ That Ignis was the one that was modelled after you. _

“Hey, does this mean we are effectively soulmates?”

“No it doesn’t.”

“C’mon, Yusaku! That’s what the pain sharing means, doesn’t it? We feel each other’s pain, which means that we are soulmates. It is really simple.”

“You were created based on me, it makes sense we are connected.”

“Connected like soulmates are~”

“Shut up.”

~*~

Of course, being connected to Ai this way was one thing. Finding out that he had a _ real _soulmate as well, was another.

And that this soulmate was Naoki Shima, was an entirely different thing altogether.

“Hey, hey, you should come to Link VRAINS with me! I could teach you how to duel properly! I am kinda big deal, you know. As Playmaker’s soulmate, I even had a TV show about me!”

“Didn’t it get cancelled?”

“But it was still a show that existed! Even at the lowest point of the show, it got hundreds of views!”

Yusaku didn’t reply to it, but Naoki was just looking at him with big, hopeful eyes, and he just sighed.

“I will think about it.”

~*~

“Will you? Will you really think about it?”

“Shut up.”

“You know you can’t go into Link VRAINS without blowing your cover. Which would not be a bad thing, probably.”

“I can always make a new login.”

“Oh come on, that is next level avoidance tactics from you.”

“Shut it.”

He did not want Naoki to know certain things. He did not want him to ask certain questions. The less he knew, the safer he was.

Of course, it still didn’t mean he was actually safe, seeing as he kept running his mouth about how Playmaker was his soulmate. Yusaku didn’t forget when Faust took advantage of that, and he was far from the only one who had done so. Saying that someone is your soulmate, when being soulmates has an actual, tangible effect…

~*~

Yusaku was Playmaker now, but even in the virtual world, he was obviously still feeling the sting of pain on his skin as he dragged Naoki away from the latest random person who kidnapped him, and forced him to duel - and absolutely savagely beaten Naoki, knowing that his pain transfers to Playmaker.

“I knew you would come and save me! Playmaker, after all we are--”

“I know that!” Yusaku snapped, turning around to glare at Naoki. “Don’t you think I know that? The whole Link VRAINS knows that Brave Max is Playmaker’s soulmate. Because you keep yelling about it.”

“But it’s tr---”

He couldn’t finish, because Yusaku yanked Naoki closer to himself, pressing their lips together, almost furiously.

It was a clumsy kiss, and Naoki was flailing with his arms, before Yusaku pulled back, his glare not softening at all.

“You keep putting yourself in danger with that big mouth of yours. Be a little bit more _ careful, _won’t you?”

Then he logged out, leaving the bewildered Brave Max behind.

When he stepped out of the compartment, he met with the smug grin of Kusanagi, and Yusaku just glared at him this time around.

“Not a word.”

“I didn’t even say anything.”

“Your face did.”

Ai popped out of the disk, also snickering, and not even Yusaku’s glare made him stop doing so.

“Oh man, this is great. I can’t wait to hear his rambling tomorrow!”

“I am leaving you at home tomorrow.”

“Huh?! That is not fair! It’s like missing the next installment of a soap opera! You can’t be that cruel!”

He obviously left Ai home the next day.

~*~

“Can you believe this?! Oh my god, I still can’t believe it actually happened!”

“I can believe that your big mouth got you into trouble.”

“That is not the point! Playmaker kissed me! Weren’t you listening?”

Yusaku sighed, fixing his eyes on the ceiling, while Naoki was flailing next to him.

“I am listening. And I heard you say that fourteen times already.”

Naoki looked at him confused, and then his eyes widened.

“Oooh… sorry, I didn’t even notice! You are jealous!”

“I am not.”

Yusaku was quick, and just as Naoki leaned forward, he slithered away from his arms, and didn’t even stop until the door as he left, without looking back, pretending not to hear Naoki yelling after him.

~*~

“So you literally ran away from him.”

“Shut up.”

“You can’t avoid him forever, Yusaku.”

Yusaku was lying on his back, clutching his duel disk with his hands on his chest, and avoided looking at Ai with all his might.

“...Ai, he needs someone _ normal. _He has a normal life and normal circumstances. Me being there just drags too many problems into his life he is not prepared to deal with.”

“Well, that is already done. Maybe you _ could _help him out. You know, so he can deal with it better.”

Yusaku glanced down at Ai, who was looking at him sincerely - and Yusaku just flicked Ai’s forehead, causing his own forehead to sting a little as well.

“Ow! What was that for?! I am here all helpful, and you are being like this! I am trying to help so you aren’t all lonely without a soulmate and all!”

“I have you.”

Yusaku said it without even thinking, and that made Ai go silent, his glowing eyes widening, and Yusaku just looked up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the way his cheeks were heating up.

“We do share our pain, after all.”

“Oh wow. Smooth.”

“Shut up.”

“You just called me your soulmate!”

“I absolutely didn’t.”

~*~

Yusaku had met people who were soulmates with people who were the Ignis’ origins. He knew from them, that they also felt the pain of those Ignis’, although not quite as sharp as their soulmate’s pain, but still noticeable, and painful.

If Naoki had noticed a connection between Ai and himself, he didn’t show it.

Something that annoyed Ai to no end.

Especially after…

Sure Ai was distracted while they were focusing on bringing the other Ignis back - tracking down their data, helping them rearrange themselves.

But after it was all said and done, and over with, and Ai even got himself a SOLtiS body to be obnoxious in (Zaizen really should not have helped them get those bodies, in retrospect), he definitely made good use of a more expressive face he could use for pouting.

“I mean doesn’t this mean I am his soulmate too? And he doesn’t notice it? I am hurt. Offended! Devastated!”

“He gets a smaller dose of your pain. And how could he notice? If he watched recordings of duels, then it means both of us were getting hurt together.”

Ai gave out a tut-tut noise, leaning by the back of Yusaku’s chair, almost leaning on him.

“If he watched our second speed duel against Revolver, he could have noticed! When I was all heroic and shielding you from debris!”

“It is debatable how much of that footage was even good enough to see. He might have guessed I was still hit by debris and that’s that he felt.”

Ai huffed, and kept pouting, before resting his chin on the top of Yusaku’s head.

“Whatcha doin?”

“Homework.”

“Boooooring. Play with me instead!”

“Let me work and then I will be done sooner.”

“And then we play?”

“Maybe.”

“Yay!”

~*~

It was almost like Ai got clingier after all got said and done. Sure, they got into more issues in Link VRAINS, because when did they not? But as time passed, he seemed even more likely to come out of his disk in his monstrous form in the real world too, completely wrapping around Yusaku, demanding attention. Sometimes he was considerate enough to leave his arms free, but usually, Ai’s clinginess meant that he could not pay attention to anything else, but Ai.

Yusaku found it that when he fell asleep like that, all wrapped around by Ai, even if he was nipping on his neck playfully or nuzzling him, he never woke up from nightmares.

~*~

The time came where he could no longer distract Naoki - he had to go into Link VRAINS with him.

So he revived the Unknown login.

“So, I added a program to your duel disk” Shoichi said, as he gave the disk back to Yusaku. “If you need, you can switch accounts without logging out. Not perfectly legal, but I doubt that Akira will make a fuss about this.”

Yusaku nodded, putting on his duel disk, and Shoichi smirked.

“Unknown, huh?”

“You still go by Unnamed, you have no place to judge me.”

“But I can!” Ai piped up, popping out of the duel disk. “And I saw your choice of an avatar, and man, oh man, I have _ opinions _about it.”

“Keep those opinions to yourself. And please, stay in the duel disk. And silent. At least while I’m using the Unknown account.”

“Aye, aye captain. But you have a ridiculous avatar.”

“Shut it. Your SOLtiS body looks like a theatrical vampire.”

“At least mine has _ style.” _

“It doesn’t.”

None of the SOLtiS bodies had any kind of style - Yusaku knew that Ai was over the moon over his friends being back, and Yusaku… well.

He was happy to have _ most _of them back. Windy seemed to have returned to his normal state, and Lightning…

None of them said it, but all of them kept an eye on Lightning.

But it would have felt _ wrong, _if they wouldn’t have given him a second chance.

Yusaku just hoped he wasn’t gonna betray their tentative trust.

Especially when he saw them hang out in their SOLtiS bodies, Lightning stuck with manning the truck, and Ai leaning in, making himself a nuisance as usual.

He really didn’t want Ai’s heart to be broken again.

(Looking at Lightning, Yusaku had a feeling he didn’t want that either.)

~*~

“Unknown? Really? You couldn’t have picked a better nickname?”

Naoki was being Brave Max now, and Yusaku sighed.

“It’s fine for me.”

Yusaku maybe wasn’t the most creative when it came to making his avatars - he never felt the need to really show off. So he just changed his outfit colour a bit, and added a different hairstyle - slightly longer, black hair with purple highlights.

He fidgeted with his hair a bit- wasn’t really used to the longer hair, and Naoki just laughed.

“Come on then, Unknown. I will show you around!”

Yusaku sighed, and just followed Naoki around, looking at everything he was showing to them.

~*~

Once, Naoki tentatively asked him about what happened ten years ago. Guessing around, in his clumsy ways.

“Hey, Yusaku. What were you doing when you were a kid? Been somewhere? Or anything? Like uh maybe… ten years ago?”

“What do you mean?”

Naoki shook his head.

“Nevermind. Just asking. I guess it wasn’t you, then. Don’t worry about it.”

Of course later that evening, when Ai was wrapped around Yusaku, in his android form again, watching what Yusaku was reading, head resting on Yusaku’s shoulder, he was complaining about all of this.

“Sooner or later, he will find out, Yusaku. For now he probably thinks that it’s Playmaker whose pain he felt ten years ago.”

“Which he did.”

“Yeah, but _ you are _Playmaker!”

“I never told him I am not.”

“Lie by omission! We had been through this!”

Yusaku didn’t answer and Ai just sighed, pressed a kiss to Yusaku’s face, and when he spoke again, his voice was obviously more gentle than before.

“I can tell you don’t like keeping things from him either.”

“The less he knows, the safer he is. You know it. You and I… we can’t avoid having target marks on our backs at this point. But if there is anything I can do to keep focus off from him…”

He did not finish, and for once, Ai stayed quiet as well.

For five minutes, before he got bored and started tickling Yusaku, that is.

~*~

Naoki obviously took it upon himself to teach Yusaku how to duel. Obviously. Yusaku was just watching him, biting his tongue more often than not, and hoped that Ai can stay quiet through all of it (somehow, he usually managed). He also had his dummy deck to play with, so it was fine.

And then Naoki got a random person for Unknown to play against. He even tried to get those noisy reporters to broadcast their duel.

(Which they refused, yelling at Naoki to call them if Playmaker shows up. Yusaku couldn’t help but to smirk a little upon hearing that.)

Yusaku knew that he had to act like he wasn’t that good at it. Making a few mistakes. It was fine.

His LP was falling. His opponent was actually nice and encouraging, telling him about the mistakes he made. It was nice.

His heartbeat was still spiking up.

If he loses…

No. No, nothing bad will happen if he loses.

_ Yesitwillyoucantlosecantlosecantlose _

**No. ** Nothing bad is going to _ yesitwillyesitwillCANTLOSECANTLOSEGOTTAWIN _

“Hey buddy. Unknown, right? You ok? Wanna stop?”

His opponent looked at him with concerned eyes, and from the corner of his eyes he noticed Naoki also looking at him, confused.

“...my turn. I draw.”

He drew a card, and looked at it, numbly.

That card was not in his dummy deck, but it was there in the other one.

Ai.

_ CantlosecantloseSODONTLOSE. _

It only took him one turn to take away all his opponent’s LP.

“Wow. Synchro summon? I did not expect you to do that. Nice job, Unknown.”

His opponent was gone, and Yusaku just fell into his knees, because all the strength seemingly left his legs, and Naoki hurried up to him.

“Wow! I didn’t think you had the monsters needed to pull off a synchro summon. Playmaker also has a tuner monster like that doesn’t he? Oh, I knew you were a secret fan!”

“...sorry. I’m gonna log out now.”

“Huh? But wa---”

Yusaku didn’t wait for him to finish, and he just logged out.

~*~

He was holding onto Ai like his life depended on it - Ai was in his monstrous form, getting out of the disk as much as he could, wrapping long appendages around Yusaku, nuzzling his neck, and Yusaku just pressed kisses all over his head. His chest was still hurting, his legs still weak, and his eyes were stinging when he logged out of Link VRAINS, but since Ai wrapped around him, it was like breathing was becoming way easier.

Ai wasn’t speaking just humming contently, not really willing to let Yusaku go either.

Later, Yusaku would put on one of Ai’s soap operas, and Ai would watch it, still completely wrapped around Yusaku, and making comments of the latest plot twists.

He wouldn’t even let Yusaku go when he would go to sleep, being a literal monster to chase the nightmares away, if needed.

~*~

Of course Yusaku’s luck would run out, and something would happen when he was logged in with the Unknown login. He grabbed Naoki’s wrist, dragging him after himself, hiding away from the people who wrestled control from SOL, and he tried to log out.

No avail.

They were locked in.

“I think I should go and help. I mean I am Playmaker’s so---”

“Don’t say that!” Yusaku snapped, glaring at Naoki. “Definitely not where they could hear it! Do you _ want _to end up on their target list? They would obviously try to lure Playmaker out, you don’t need to put yourself in danger!”

That made Naoki shut up, and Yusaku bit his lip.

Should he…

“So… what are you gonna do?”

Yusaku whipped around, and at the end of the alley where they hid, there was Ai in his human form - all fancy and dramatic as usual, as he walked closer.

“Huh?! Are you with them? Wait… that light… You are a SOLtiS!”

Ai grinned, before looking at Naoki, and winking a little.

“I sure am. And I am kinda offended you have no idea who I am. I mean not like our little _ Unknown _here is being subtle about his inspiration.”

“My hair is not like yours.”

“Your hair is just a _ little _spikier than mine, so close enough. But I wanted to ask you, I mean. I can go and help, but…”

“...no. It’s fine. I am going.”

“You sure?”

Yusaku didn’t reply and just glanced at Naoki.

“Sorry.”

“Huh. For wha---”

Naoki couldn’t finish, before Yusaku raised his duel disk.

“Change login.”

There was a light coming out of his duel disk, which enveloped him, and when the light went away, instead of Unknown, Playmaker was standing there.

Naoki was struck speechless, and Yusaku just extended his duel disk towards Ai.

“You coming?”

Ai smiled a bit, before his own avatar disappeared into a swirl of data, that flew straight into Yusaku’s duel disk - and then his familiar little form popped out, just to wave at the still completely speechless Naoki.

Yusaku just glanced at him their eyes meeting.

“Stay hidden. Stay out of trouble. Log out when you can.”

And then he ran out of the alley.

~*~

It was the weekend, so maybe Yusaku closed himself inside, not even going out, and Naoki didn’t visit him either. Which was not surprising, not after their last meeting. But then monday arrived, so he had to go to school. He was walking towards school, clutching his bag strap like it was going to save him from the upcoming confrontation, and then someone honked at him.

As in, literally yelled _ honk honk _at him. He glanced to that direction, and there was Ai, on a scooter, with a safety helmet on, and a huge grin on his face.

At least he left the cape behind now, but the rest of his outfit was still the usual.

Which meant that he still looked ridiculous. 

“Who gave you a scooter?”

“I thought I would come with you for moral support” Ai grinned, evading the question. “I can take you to school!”

“No thanks.”

“Come on it will be fi--------”

He couldn’t finish, because he ended up driving the front wheel into a ditch, and falling over. Yusaku’s own body jerked with the pain, before reaching out for Ai worriedly, pulling him off the road the best he could.

“...why?”

There was another voice - and Yusaku looked up, and there was a bewildered Naoki looking at from Yusaku to Ai, and back again, his eyes moving between the two of them.

“Why… why did I feel that?”

“Because it hurts! It hurts me! Hey, Yusaku can I get a healing ki---- ow!”

Yusaku was supporting Ai, but at this point he unceremoniously let him go, causing him to fall _ again, _which meant that there was a pain shooting through Yusaku’s body as well, and Naoki also shivered.

“We will talk after school, okay? I promise. It’s not something we can talk about out here, or at school.”

~*~

It was the first time Naoki had been at Yusaku’s home, and Ai was already lounging there in his SOLtiS body, lazing around, watching tv with Roboppi. Yusaku just gestured at Ai vaguely.

“Naoki, he is… he is Ai. You had met before.”

“He is also Playmaker’s… I mean… your AI, isn’t he?”

“Or he is my human” Ai grinned, his cat-like eyes glinting mischievously. “We could argue about semantics all day.”

Yusaku walked to the couch, nudging Ai to move out of the way - but as soon as he sat down, and Naoki also sat down, Ai was back to lounging, moving until his head was in Yusaku’s lap.

He oddly found it comforting, running his fingers through Ai’s hair.

“Uhm… Why didn’t you tell me you were Playmaker? I mean… Playmaker is the coolest person in Li---”

“I didn’t become Playmaker to _ be cool.” _Yusaku snapped, and he felt Ai’s thumb brush over his knee, as if trying to calm him down. So he took a deep breath. “Sorry.”

“So… why?”

“You asked me about ten years ago, once” Yusaku said, looking into Naoki’s eyes. “That is what all of it comes down to. Why I became Playmaker. Why I battled the Hanoi. And… why is Ai here, and why can we feel his pain too.”

“You can feel his pain too?”

“I feel his pain the same level I feel yours.”

“I feel Yusaku’s pain more” Ai piped up, not moving his head from Yusaku’s lap. “I do feel yours as well, but a more muted version of it.”

And then Yusaku told him everything. He told him what happened in the Lost Incident, and how it resulted in creating Ai. His desire for revenge outweighing everything, and starting his revenge and quest to find out the truth - and how he eventually found Ai, and with finding him, finding the truth came easier.

Naoki was oddly quiet through the whole thing, and when he spoke, his voice was quieter too.

“...my parents took me to a lot of doctors back then. Nobody could guess why was I hungry all the time, or had those random fits of pain - sure after running some tests, they realised it must be something that is happening to my soulmate, but they still kept me under supervision a lot. After all, if I got hit by pain while I was crossing the street, or something… even after these rushes of pain stopped, the supervision didn’t, for a while. I kept wondering what was my soulmate going through, during that time. I had… I had no idea.”

“If course you didn’t. It got covered up. SOL did a good job on that front.”

Naoki was oddly silent, and Yusaku wanted to reach out to comfort him - but didn’t.

He just sighed, while looking at him.

“Look, I know it’s a lot. I liked hanging out with you. But if you…”

“Are you _ kidding me?” _

Yusaku was baffled, and Naoki just leaned forward, their faces almost touching.

“I _ told _ you! You didn’t _ want _to be cool as Playmaker but you are! Also when you synchro summoned as Unknown… I think I totally fell for you there!”

“...you what?”

There was a flush on Naoki’s face, and he flailed a little.

“I mean… you were so cool and everything! Totally didn’t expect that comeback. I mean now it makes sense, that I know you are Playmaker, but…”

Ai snickered a little, and even Yusaku couldn’t help but smile a little.

“Oh my god you two idiots, kiss already.”

“Shut up, Ai.”

“I was talking at the screen, not to you two, but hey, if the shoe fits…”

He may have kissed Naoki goodbye as he left.

The two times he kissed Naoki - either as Playmaker, or as himself, it was always somewhat awkward, or rushed and clumsy. Neither of them were a _ bad _kiss by any means, but there was some clumsiness inherent in them. He figured that once they get over their initial awkwardness, it will disappear. Being soulmates didn’t mean that there were no hurdles in their path, especially if their relationship did start out with lies. Even if those lies were just lies by omission.

But despite all of it, after the kiss ended, and he looked into Naoki’s eyes, and Naoki smirked, and made a crack about making _ Playmaker _fall for him, Yusaku thought that they probably going to get through this odd, awkward phase.

He still rolled his eyes, though.

~*~

“Well, that went well.”

Yusaku sighed, crashing back down to the sofa, and Ai used that as an invitation to climb over him, and cling onto him. Just because he had less limbs as an android, it didn’t mean he became any less clingy.

“Yeah.”

And Yusaku didn’t mind Ai being that clingy, at all. He just leaned into his touch, and let Ai mess with his hair.

“You know, I still find it hilarious that you picked a hair so similar to mine as Unknown.”

Yusaku didn’t even dignify that with an answer, and Ai was snickering a bit, still playing with his hair.

“Do you think this will be enough for him to calm down about Playmaker being his soulmate?”

“I doubt it” Yusaku muttered, closing his eyes, enjoying Ai’s fingers in his hair. “But I think he will be quiet about my identity. And that’s enough.”

“And you did the thing. You were honest. Congrats! I should get Roboppi make you a cake.”

“That is not one of Roboppi’s functions.”

Ai laughed a little, and Yusaku just smiled faintly as well before shifting a little.

Just so he could press their lips together.

He didn’t have a preference over which form Ai was in - he liked the way Ai was wrapped around him in either form. Maybe he wouldn’t admit it to Ai at all, but it was comfortable, no matter what.

Kissing Ai was like that too - comfortable, soothing, _ familiar. _It wasn’t like the world stopped to exist - he was still very aware of his own breathing, the way Ai pulled him closer, the way Ai’s hair felt under his fingers.

If the process that ended up creating Ai made Yusaku’s world stop, meeting with him, being this close to him, definitely start it - and he never felt that more than when he was kissing Ai.

Of course as soon as the kiss ended, Ai was back to being a nuisance, but as much as Yusaku would roll his eyes, or glare at him, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

And wouldn’t move anywhere further away from Ai either.

Not unless he absolutely had to, at least.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and thanks to Immi for letting me write this mess


End file.
